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Masters Thesis

Food consumption and status in ancient Rome: evidence for non-elite dining practices

This paper challenges two generalizations about the Roman diet: that the Roman nonelite were predominantly vegetarians, and that food shops were used by non-elites while elites dined at home. With an overview of relevant literature and bioarchaeology, I argue that upper and lower classes ate many of the same foods, expressing status via presentation, not ingredient. I also examine literary and archaeological evidence for food shops and conclude that the popular belief that they were used as the primary source of hot meals for the poor is unsupportable. Using a case study of food shops in Pompeii, I offer a model, based on spatial analysis of likely storage areas, of inventory volume and concomitant caloric output of two shops. The results indicate that the clientele of these shops were probably not the lower-class residents of the surrounding neighborhood to the exclusion of elite members of society. I argue that upper and lower classes alike used the shops, and their function was probably multi-purpose for residents and visitors to the city.

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